Two recent projects using TerraThane™ geotechnical polyurethane grout were successful in solving seepage problems. TerraThane™ is a two-part geotechnical polymer that when mixed at the injection location, expands to many times its initial volume and […]
New Solution Saves Money and Time Preventing Loss of Grain and Equipment DamageMOUNT AIRY, NC—Soil consolidation and settlement happens. It’s a fact of farm life. Secondary consolidation slowly forces water out of the spaces between soil particles. As this happens, soil particles move close together and settling occurs. Floors drop and become uneven. Newer grain silos and bins are using concrete floors instead of metal, and as secondary consolidation occurs beneath them, depressed or “settled” areas, form within the bin. Grain accumulates in the depressed areas, but cannot be retrieved by the bin sweeper. In fact, the sweeper, a kind of auger that transports grain up from the floor, can become damaged from prolonged exposure to the uneven floor.
This is exactly what Kirk Roberts of CJGeo, a Williamsburg, Virginia-based commercial foundation repair and geotechnical contractor, found when he got the job to repair the foundation of a massive 106-foot diameter grain bin at a poultry processing facility on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. “Once they removed the hundreds of thousands of bushels of grain, we found the floor had dropped some three inches in one section of the bin leaving a large pocket of grain out of reach of the bin sweeper.”
[Editor] Read on for the rest of this press release from GeoPrac sponsor NCFI Polyurethanes. [/Editor]
MOUNT AIRY, NC—Highways around Houston, TX, known as one the nation’s worst cities for traffic behind Los Angeles, D.C., and Atlanta, need constant repair, but can’t be closed while the work is done. Nortex Concrete Lift and Stabilization, Inc., a Ft. Worth, TX company, recently completed a whirlwind repair project on one of the city’s busiest corridors in the NE quadrant where I-10, 610 Loop, I-59, and I-69 feed millions of cars daily to, from, and around Harris County.
Normal groundwater erosion beneath the highways causes the concrete highway slabs to drop, roadway depressions, uneven bridge approaches, and uneven joints that make driving bumpy and uncomfortable, dangerous, and causes severe wear and tear on automobiles.
To make the repairs, the Texas Department of Transportation, TXDOT, brought in Nortex. The company carefully planned out the repairs for the half million pound project, and sent out four crews each with it’s own box truck rig to use a relatively new technology called “foamjacking.” Foamjacking uses high-density polyurethane foam to fill the subterranean voids, and lift the concrete slabs to proper level. “We’ve been lifting and stabilizing roadways with polyurethane foam since we got into the business back in 2003,” says Casey Derosa, asst. gen. mgr. of Nortex. “It’s a far superior method versus the old way of mudjacking.” Mudjacking is a ubiquitous term for a mix of mud, sand, cement, crushed limestone, and water hydraulically pumped into large holes drilled into the concrete slabs to fill voids and level the slabs. Mudjacking uses more and much larger equipment, and requires larger holes to be drilled. It typically requires the roadway to be closed much longer than foamjacking, and takes more time to clean up.
[Editor] Click through for the rest of the press release from GeoPrac sponsor NCFI Polyurethanes. [/Editor]
MOUNT AIRY, NC—The Univ. of Missouri’s iconic Memorial Union, with its Gothic architecture and central bell tower, was built to commemorate the 117 Mizzou alumni who lost their lives in WWI, and has been under silent attack. Like all buildings built atop the ancient dry riverbeds of the tributary valleys of the Missouri River, the soil beneath is a mixture of sand, clay, and fine rock particles and highly susceptible to erosion from water. So, while hundreds of thousands of students walked the hallways of the building, water escaping steam pipes far beneath caused severe drying of the soil and destabilized it enough so that erosion created voids, or cavities in the soil, some as large as four feet. In turn, this caused the concrete slab floors atop the voids to become uneven, and the eventual danger of even greater problems loomed large.
A team of engineers went after the problem, including MU alums, Matt VanderTuig, P.E., of Bartlett & West, Jefferson City, MO, and Mark Whitehead, P.E. with extensive structural design and environmental engineering management experience. They suggested to Chris Hentges, president of SIRCAL Contracting, Jefferson City, the general contractor in charge of the job, that instead of using the older method of mudjacking, a highly involved and intrusive process of drilling large holes in the slabs—sometimes removing the slabs entirely—and pumping “mud”, ultra-heavy Portland cement-based grout, into the void, then leveling the slabs, that the university might better be served by using the newer polyurethane foam system method called “foamjacking” or “polyjacking.”
[Editor] Be sure to click through for the rest of the interesting project from GeoPrac sponsor NCFI Polyurethanes and TerraThane! [/Editor]
U.S. Forestry Service Saves Thousands with Use of TerraThane Geotechnical Foam by NCFI Polyurethanes at Seneca Rocks Discovery CenterMOUNT AIRY, NC— Seneca Rocks Discovery Center, the visitor’s center for the eastern U.S.’s most popular rock-climbing destination located in Pendleton County, WV, had a growing problem common to concrete slab foundations: erosion of the soil beneath the slabs created voids that left areas of the center with uneven spots and settled anywhere from one-to three inches. That led to cracks in interior walls, uneven floors, and trip hazards for the thousands of visitors to the area’s most popular scenic attraction. Seneca Rocks is a striking 900 ft peak that features over 375 mapped climbing routes varying in degree of difficulty from easier 5.0 to the hardest 5.13, and attracts climbers from around the world.
[Editor] Click through to find out how geotechnical foam manufactured by GeoPrac.net’s sponsor, NCFI Polyurethanes, was used to repair this important structure! [/Editor]
MOUNT AIRY, NC—The distinctly American company, NCFI Polyurethanes, is known for pioneering innovative, improved, and unique uses for one of their main product offerings: polyurethane foam. Since the company’s scientists and engineers began formulating polyurethane foam back in 1967, other chemical systems companies have been saying, “wonder what they’ll come up with next?” So, it was really more of a “holy cow” moment in the 1990s when NCFI began formulating foam systems for geotechnical uses: highway and roadway repair, bridge approach repair, concrete lifting, leveling and void fill. And it’s no surprise that like all NCFI product lines, TerraThane geotechnical foam is quietly changing the way entire industries work for the better.
[Editor] Read more about the many applications of GeoPrac.net sponsor NCFI’s TerraThane in Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental projects! [/Editor]
NCFI is a U.S. polyurethane manufacturing leader in the supply of high performance polyurethane systems since 1964. Their line of TerraThane™ geotechnical polyurethanes are ideally suited for concrete lifting and leveling, soil stabilization, void fill […]
MOUNT AIRY, NC—In-ground parking garages in Dallas, TX experience the same thing: erosion of the soil beneath them, and silt infiltration that overwhelms and clogs the drainage system, thus causing more and worse erosion. The keys are catching it early enough, and choosing the right solution to keep it from happening again.
The three-story, in-ground parking garage at McKinney Ave. and Worthington St., the main thoroughfare of the Dallas’ “Uptown” area and home to some of the poshest apartments, business addresses, shopping, hotels, restaurants and bars, had silt and water infiltration, so the owners called in Edens Structural Solutions, Bixby, OK, with 30 years experience of structural lifting and repair. David Edens, company president, says they studied the problem and decided on geotechnical polyurethane foam. “Our solution was to use void-filling TerraThane geotech foam. It’s simple to apply, expands and cures in place, and is an excellent water and air barrier,” says Edens.
[Editor] Click through for the rest of the press release from NCFI [/Editor]
Copyright © 2007-2020 by Randy Post